Skip to content

Promille

per mille, per thousand

noun pro-MIL-le Rare
Numbers & Measures Quantities

Origin: from Latin 'per mille' (per thousand)

Also means

blood-alcohol level (colloquial)

Usage Note

Promille (‰) = one part per thousand; used for blood-alcohol concentration in traffic law (0,5 Promille), metal alloys, and fine measurements. Plural Promille (invariable).

Examples

"In Deutschland gilt eine Promillegrenze von 0,5 für Autofahrer."

Natural Translation

In Germany the blood-alcohol limit for drivers is 0.5 per mille.

Literal Translation

In Germany applies a per-mille-limit of 0.5 for car-drivers.

Free starter pack

Building your German vocabulary?

Get the 100 most common German words as a free PDF — one email, no spam.

Explore German by topic